Surveyor SRV-1 Trail

The Surveyor SRV-1b is a great platform for experimenting in machine vision. With the wireless communication and built in camera the SRV-1b is a natural choice for machine vision processing using a PC.

In this tutorial we once again experiment with object tracking. In this case we are looking for orange squares that define a trail for the robot the follow. The trial of squares is created using orange electrical tape cut in small pieces and placed approximately 1.5 inches apart. Care needs to be taken to place each square near enough to the previous square otherwise the robot will not be able to see the next square as it looses track of the previous one. Once the robot determines that no additional squares are present it will turn around and proceed back over the course.

The camera angle of the SRV-1b is more or less parallel with the floor. In order for this tutorial to work correctly the camera needs to be tilted down such that more of the floor is in view. This hardware adjustment is necessary otherwise the squares appear more like orange lines due to the large perspective distortion in the default view. The tilting of the camera was accomplished by using a 32 pin connector that fits into the camera socket and bending the pins using a vice to the desired angle. While this is not the most elegant solution it certainly worked for our purposes.

First left us have a look at our sample trail ...